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Justice Correspondent

NBC News

Pete Williams is an NBC News correspondent based in Washington, DC. He has been covering the Justice Department and the U.S. Supreme Court since March 1993. Williams was also a key reporter on the Microsoft anti-trust trial and Judge Jackson's decision.

Prior to joining NBC News, Williams served as a press official on Capitol Hill for many years. In 1986 he joined the Washington, DC staff of then Congressman Dick Cheney as press secretary and a legislative assistant. In 1989, when Cheney was named Assistant Secretary of Defense, Williams was appointed Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. While in that position, Williams was named Government Communicator of the Year in 1991 by the National Association of Government Communicators.

A native of Casper, Wyoming and a 1974 graduate of Stanford University, Williams was a reporter and news director at KTWO-TV and Radio in Casper from 1974 to 1985. Working with the Radio-Television News Directors Association, for which he served as a member of its board of directors, he successfully lobbied the Wyoming Supreme Court to permit broadcast coverage of its proceedings and twice sued Wyoming judges over pre-trial exclusion of reporters from the courtroom. For these efforts, he received a First Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Surveillance video and cellphones led police to arrest five people near the Verrazano Bridge in New York in connection to the explosions in New York, and an active search for a sixth person continues as the investigation to multiple bombings in New Y

The Foreign Denial and Deception Committee is said to be examining recent alleged cyberattacks by the Russians. This comes after U.S. officials say Russian hackers failed to hack into Arizona’s online voter registration system.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down one of the nation's toughest restrictions on abortion, a Texas law that women's groups said would have forced more than three-quarters of the state's clinics to shut down.

A teen is in federal custody, accused to trying to fly overseas to join the terror group ISIS. The 18-year-old from Indiana was arrested at an Indianapolis bus station headed to New York with a plane ticket to Morocco.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a challenge to Connecticut's ban on semi-automatic rifles commonly called assault weapons, acting a little over week after the mass shooting in Orlando was carried with such a firearm.

A federal appeals court's ruling this month that the Second Amendment provides no right to carry a concealed handgun in public is unlikely to prompt the Supreme Court to weigh in — despite the highly controversial nature of the issue.

The gunman who killed 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub Sunday sent a text message to his wife during the rampage, asking "do you see what's happening?" a source close to the family told NBC News Thursday.

The Orlando gunman's wife feared he was going to attack a gay nightclub overnight Saturday and pleaded with him not to do anything violent — but failed to warn police after he left, NBC News has learned.

The U.S. Supreme Court heads into the final month of its term with decisions yet to come on such divisive issues as immigration, abortion, and affirmative action. Those cases could produce major rulings affecting millions of people.

North Carolina on Monday filed a lawsuit against the federal government in response to a letter from the Justice Department that gave the state until the end of the day to scrap a controversial law regarding access to public bathrooms or risk losing

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday takes up an issue hotly contested in the presidential campaign — the battle over President Obama's immigration policy that could shield more than four million people from deportation.

Justice Department prosecutors said Friday that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert abused four young boys when he was their wrestling coach, and urged that he be ordered to serve up to six months in prison when he's sentenced later this month.

The method used by the FBI to open the iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook is unlikely to help police open hundreds of other iPhones that may contain evidence of a crime, according to government officials and legal experts.

The federal government has spent more than $86 million on a drug surveillance airplane that is four times over budget and has yet to fly, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Justice Department's inspector general.

In a highly unusual move that could be designed to head off a 4-4 tie, the U.S. Supreme Court today asked new questions in one of the term's most contentious cases — the contraceptive requirements of Obamacare.

The effect that conservative Justice Antonin Scalia's death is having on the Supreme Court's most divisive issues will get another big test when the court convenes Wednesday in the battle pitting religious freedom and birth control.

Most Senate Republicans are steadfastly refusing to consider President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, but others with more moderate constituencies or tough reelection battles say they're open to considering the nomination, o

President Obama announced Wednesday that he is nominating Federal Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, praising his track record as a "thoughtful, fair-minded" jurist whose centrist bent has often appealed to Congressio

President Barack Obama nominated federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, setting up what could be a protracted confirmation battle with congressional Republicans.

Two men have been arrested, one in California, one in Texas, and will appear in court later today to be formally charged. Officials say this is a case about fighting overseas, and not with plotting attacks here at home.

President Barack Obama directed federal agencies Monday to carry out a series of steps to reduce gun violence, including measures to restrict sales by unlicensed dealers -- sometimes called the gun show loophole.

The U.S. government may impose tighter scrutiny of visa-seekers' social media accounts following revelations that one of the San Bernardino attackers discussed violence before she was allowed into the country.

The suspects in the mass shooting at a San Bernardino holiday party, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 27, were armed with four guns, an explosive device, and several magazines of ammunition in a "well-planned" attack, po

With ISIS now threatening attacks on the United States, security and intelligence officials are on heightened alert. The director of the FBI says agents are keeping an eye on dozens of people who could be inspired by the terror group.

As ISIS threatens to strike inside the U.S., airlines are keeping their schedules of flights from the U.S. to Paris and back, but U.S. authorities are intensively scrutinizing passenger lists on inbound flights.

The U.S. Supreme Court is stepping back into the high-profile fight over abortion, agreeing Friday to review a Texas law that could force more than three-quarters of the state's abortion clinics to shut down.

In the backwaters of Eastern Europe, authorities working with the FBI have interrupted four attempts in the past five years by gangs with suspected Russian connections that sought to sell radioactive material to Middle Eastern extremists, The Associa

The county official in rural Kentucky who has become the focal point for resistance to the U.S. Supreme Court's gay marriage decision will appear this morning before a federal judge to explain why she should not be held in contempt of court.

The 14th Amendment provides that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." Many legal scholars believe the issue wa

A secret NSA map obtained exclusively by NBC News shows the Chinese government's massive cyber assault on all sectors of the U.S economy, including major firms like Google and Lockheed Martin, as well as the U.S. government and military.

The gunman who opened fire on two military centers in Chattanooga Thursday, killing four Marines and critically wounding a Navy sailor, was not in any federal terrorism database and was not under investigation before he carried out the rampage, sever

Oklahoma and other states can continue to execute death-row prisoners with a three-drug combination that includes a chemical used in several prolonged or botched lethal injections, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to the reach of the Obama health care law, rescuing the program from a potentially fatal legal challenge for the second time since Obamacare's inception.

NBC justice correspondent Pete Williams discusses the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Charleston, South Carolina, including how police are working to enhance surveillance footage of the suspect.

Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, the terrorism suspect who was killed by police in Boston, abandoned a plot to behead the organizer of a controversial "Draw Muhammad" competition in favor of killing police officers, law enforcement sources told NBC

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, citing a "serious erosion of public trust," announced Friday that the Justice Department would investigate whether the Baltimore police had engaged in a pattern of civil rights violations.

Federal investigators say one of the Phoenix gunmen who attacked a Sunday gathering in Texas that dealt with depictions of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad was in contact with at least three known ISIS sympathizers in the days before.

The penalty phase in the trial begins with the victims' families divided over whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be sentenced to death, or life in prison. NBC's justice correspondent Pete Williams reports.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been convicted for his role in the April 15, 2013, bombings of the Boston Marathon, ending the first phase of a terror trial that will now continue with a penalty phase to determine whether he will be executed.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyers have conceded that he took party in the Boston Marathon bombings, but insist it was his brother who was in charge. Lawyers will give closing arguments Monday. NBC justice correspondent Pete Williams reports.

The Boston Marathon bombing trial focuses on the end of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s 24 hours on the run. His defense team must soon decide if they’ll put him on the stand. NBC justice correspondent Pete Williams reports.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who has admitted taking part in the deadly 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, went about his life as though nothing had happened, even going shopping for milk less than a half-hour after the explosions, jurors were told — and shown — M

Three men from Brooklyn, New York, were arrested on Wednesday and accused of plotting to wage jihad for ISIS. One of the men had offered to kill President Barack Obama if the militants asked him to, authorities said.

Gay couples got married in Alabama on Monday despite a last-minute push from the state's chief justice to stop them. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a federal court order requiring the state to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

Federal agents are investigating whether four Minnesota men were trying to travel to Syria, possibly to join up with ISIS, officials said Thursday. One has been charged with lying to the FBI, according to court documents.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler on Wednesday proposed sweeping new federal rules to regulate the Internet like a public utility, a notion endorsed three months ago by President Obama.

After a long day of rapidly changing information, U.S. counterterrorism officials said Wednesday night that they cannot be certain of the status of the three suspects in the Paris attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine.

The man charged with the terror attack near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon went on trial Monday in a federal courthouse less than two miles from where two bombs, concealed in backpacks, exploded with devastating force.

A federal appeals court declined Saturday to delay the start of the Boston bombing trial — rejecting a defense request that the appeals court either order the judge to move the trial out of Boston or hold a hearing on the issue.

A Delta baggage handler was arrested Monday for allegedly smuggling firearms — some loaded — into the Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta, where he handed them off to an accomplice who flew to New York, federal law enforcement officials said.

U.S. officials have concluded that the North Korean government ordered the hacking attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment — a breach that led to the studio cancelling the planned release of "The Interview". One U.S.

Investigators will likely be looking for matching sequences of computer code as they try and trace a Sony Pictures hack attack that exposed embarrassing emails among high-powered execs — and experts warn attacks like it can start with an innocuous-lo

The Supreme Court on Monday wrestled with the question of setting free speech limits online while hearing a case about a Pennsylvania man convicted of making rap-like threats on Facebook that he would kill his wife.

Loretta Lynch, the head federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, has emerged as a top contender to replace Eric Holder as the next attorney general, but White House officials insist a final decision has not yet been made.

Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the only person to be charged in connection with deadly 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, pleaded not guilty Monday to 17 new charges, including some that could result in the death penalty.

Federal prosecutors Tuesday charged a Rochester, New York man with trying to recruit people to join the ISIS terror group overseas and to shoot people in the United States, including Shia Muslims and American military personnel returning from the Mid

In a victory for the Obama administration, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. Thursday threw out an earlier ruling that said financial subsidies are not available for people who bought health insurance on the federal exchange.

Home Depot may be the latest retailer to have suffered a massive credit card breach, the company confirmed on Tuesday, after Krebs on Security reported that a large cache of stolen data had appeared on black market sites.

The U.S. government has sent an advisory to airlines that fly into Russia, warning them that recent intelligence suggests terrorists might try to smuggle explosives onto planes by using toothpaste tubes.

The TSA is now imposing a temporary new ban on most aerosols, gels, powders, and liquids in carry-ons on U.S. flights to Russia — bringing American regulations into line with the rules that Russia itself imposed earlier this week.

The path to Arizona's proposed law that would allow businesses to refuse service to gays and lesbians begins over twenty years ago in Oregon and winds through a photographer's studio in New Mexico.
Two Native American men who worked at a

A friend of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty Monday of obstruction of justice for interfering with the FBI's investigation into the latter's possible involvement in the 2013 terrorist attack.

A friend of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty Monday of obstruction of justice for interfering with the FBI's investigation into the latter's possible involvement in the 2013 terrorist attack.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday takes up the most closely watched issue of its term: Does the Obamacare law violate the religious freedom of private employers by requiring them to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives?

Further loosening the reins on the role of money in politics, the U.S. Supreme Court today struck down restrictions on the grand total that any person can contribute to all federal candidates for office.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the refusal by the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay adults to be scout leaders "perpetuates the worst kind of stereotypes." In remarks for delivery to a gay rights organization, Lambda Legal

In a sweeping decision in favor of digital privacy, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police almost always need a warrant to search a person’s cellphone, even in the case of someone placed under arrest.

The US Supreme Court today limited a president's power to make recess appointments when the White House and the Senate are controlled by opposite parties, scaling back a presidential authority as old as the republic.

We at the PBS NewsHour and Washington Week lost our dear colleague, Gwen Ifill, to cancer on Monday. During her life, she often was called upon to discuss journalism, barriers and how to burst through them, and sometimes just react to something fun.

Gwen Ifill was moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" and co-anchor and managing editor of the "PBS NewsHour." The best-selling author of "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama," Gwen covered seven presidential campaigns and moderated two vice presidential debates.